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"We had the loveliest relationship. She was a lovely girl. She was my best friend. She was very articulate and mature, and she worked hard. She did the business accounts for her grandmother and she would have been a huge success. She lived for her children."

Miss Love was last seen by her mother at 6pm on Christmas Eve.

She was found fully clothed but her handbag, shoes, bank cards and a ring resembling Princess Diana’s saphire engagement band were missing.

Miss Love was found to have bruising to her eye, injuries on her face, strangulation marks to her neck and had suffered a blow to the back of her neck, her mother said.

Her mobile phone was discovered in a rubbish bin several miles away, Miss Love said. She was informed of her daughter’s death at 5pm on Christmas Day and identified her body the next day.

"It had been 24 hours, and I was anxious. I was about to call the police, and there was a knock. I was scared something might have happened to her; it was mother’s instincts."

In the family’s kitchen Miss Love has formed a shrine with candles and photographs of her late daughter.

Ruby’s sister, Sarah-Lee, 22, said: "It was a horrible person who took her from us. She’s a Christian girl and he did it on Christmas day."

"She was like a mother to me. She was such a loving girl. She was an angel. She was so charitable; she would feed anyone in the street. She was too blessed for this world and she has been taken from us."